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5 indicators that you have a western bias as a consultant (revised)

By far, this is the most widely read post on my blog, with 21,000 people having read it in the past 4 months. I have made some minor changes and thus re-publishing it . I must admit that it is a great source of pride that people are least getting exposed to this message.

Instead of confessing, it is much easier for OD consultants to haggle with my claim that OD values and tools are culturally tainted! In one forum I participated in, someone even claimed that I have a personality disorder which has led me to claim that OD itself needs to be globalized in order to deal with global organizing. Psychological reductionism is much easier than taking ownership of ones’ limitations and biases.

When OD consultants admit their western bias, there is a lot of “unlearning” to do, and new skills need to be acquired. That’s a high price to pay!

To asses the degree of your western cultural bias, answer the following 5 questions with a YES or NO.

1) Is having an ongoing candid dialogue at work better than ignoring differences and pretending that they do not exist?

2) If someone misrepresents key facts in a meeting on purpose, are they lying?

3) Do people all over the world think that teamwork means collaboration with their peers?

4) Is being mildly authentic at work generally preferable to showing rigid emotional restraint?

5) Does honest feedback generally motivate all staff, world wide, regardless of culture?

If you answered YES for all five questions, I would suggest that you try to better understand your biases, and start unlearning the universality of your beliefs.. Otherwise forget about being effective in the global workplace.

I spend tens of hours each month helping consultants and managers rid themselves of these biases. The hardest bias to work on is #2. And that’s the truth! 😉

15 thoughts on “5 indicators that you have a western bias as a consultant (revised)”

Mais, Gloria n’arrives pas comme ca, mais hui? Alors, niemand ist an island. Duniya gol hain. Patterns are like footprints of time in social waves of interaction, on desert sand dunes, or like curls on troughs of ocean current.

We can become so much more effective when we admit we have ‘blinders’ and can really reflect on where we are ‘coming from’. As practitioners, it is absolutely essential that we keep an open mind and constantly challenge ourselves to ‘see’ differently.

Wearing “cultural lenses” is a term I use to explain the subjectivity in reaction to working in a multi cultural environment. This came from a great article on the subject done a couple of years ago. Knowing that our first reaction to something surprising is usually a cultural/instinctive one and adjusting to the local environment to explain the difference is an ongoing status in the life of an expat, no matter how long expat it is.

Even asking for a YES/NO answer is controversial – sometimes a both/and is preferable to an either/or approach. That said:

1) I’d lean towards yes, but acknowledge that addressing differences might best be done in a circuitous route that would seem like “ignoring” to a direct talker.
2) Maybe, maybe not. saving face is sometimes valued more highly than a technical truth.
3) I’d like to hear more from you about what this question means to you.
4) Do authenticity and restraint have to be mutually exclusive?
5) I think personality types trump culture here. I’ve met both feedback-resistant and feedback-seeking people in different cultures. The form and manner of feedback, however, is highly important.

The more I look at OD being practiced in different parts of the world, the more I see the needed cultural adaptations necessary to make our practice relevant. May be, when it comes to culture, we need a whole overhaul of our approach, because our national cultures and even internal sub-culture determines how we could be better effective culturally.

The more I look at OD being practiced in different parts of the world, the more I see the needed cultural adaptations necessary to make our practice relevant. May be, when it comes to culture, we need a whole overhaul of our approach, because our national cultures and even internal sub-culture determines how we could be better effective culturally.

While the Theories, Frameworks, Principles and Tools of OD are globally relevant and applicable; the manner in which a Consultant weaves them into a fabric would be very different across the globe. It is similar to the manner in which a Physician would practice medicine in the Western world as compared to what the Physician would do in the Eastern world at a very high level. Below this there would be differences based on the Country and region within a country, etc., etc.

The manner in which you have asked for the response is very ‘black’ and ‘white’. However, the reality for someone like me lies in the ‘grey’ for which there is no response provided by you. 🙂